


Back to Where You Came From

by eugyne (AreteNike)



Series: Brothers in Arms [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Gen, keith and lance are brothers au, surprise bitch i bet you thought youd seen the last of me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:22:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26500582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AreteNike/pseuds/eugyne
Summary: In retrospect, it all makes sense.(AKA: three ways I started to write the Fic Where Keith And Lance Realize They're Both Half Alien, before abandoning the idea and the fandom entirely. I just found these attempts while cleaning out old files and figured I might as well post them in lieu of the actual finished fic that will never be.)
Relationships: Keith & Lance (Voltron)
Series: Brothers in Arms [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1048979
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> to be clear: i don't actually like any of these attempts ^^;

There are three unusual things Lance notices the first time he stumbles out of a healing pod.

The first is that Keith isn't there.

The second is that he's cold, freezing, and definitely not injured like he remembers being, and yes, alien technology and whatnot--but he isn't used to it and he does notice.

The third is that everyone present is staring at him with varying levels of shock, except for Allura, who's beaming. This is not an expression she usually makes at him, which makes it the second most alarming of the things he's noticed.

But, first things first. "Where's Keith? 'S he okay?"

Allura's face falls instantly. 

"He's unhurt," Coran says, like he's trying to be casual about it, but it only makes Lance more suspicious.

"...And?"

"Allura pissed him off," Pidge says flatly, earning **her a glare from the aforementioned party. She shrugs it off. "He's fine, though, probably."

"/Probably?/" He's only liking this less and less.

"There have been a couple of revelations."

Coran clears his throat. "Yes, quite. You see, the pod did a quick genetic scan--just to ascertain your ideal state of health, see. And... Allura?"

"Yes." She smiles again, though not quite as widely. "It seems you are Altean, Lance."

"Well, half," Coran adds.

Lance's knees give out. It's only half because he's still weak from the healing pod.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i don't think any of these are even complete scenes lmao. sorry!


	2. Chapter 2

Lance didn't think much about the way his lion greeted him--like an old friend--until Keith met his. _Hello again, little one,_ Blue had said.

Red, apparently, wasn't like that.

So Lance began to wonder if, somehow, they _had_ met before. Which was silly, maybe, definitely, because Blue had been underground for thousands of years and Lance was only--

He asked her, anyway. And she said they had.

_ You were very small, and it was very long ago. _

But how? That's the problem--how could it be possible for them to have met? That, Blue doesn't seem to know--not how it happened, just that it did.

He doesn't tell anyone about it, at least not right away. He's _going_ to tell Keith but Keith has been... weird, maybe? Getting less weird as they adjust to this whole... thing, but it's only been a couple days. And Keith isn't really into change.

And then Sendak tries to take over the castle.

He remembers diving for cover, pushing Coran ahead of him, and then its all bits and pieces from there. Being carried; lying prone on the floor, seeing feet and hearing voices but too out of it to move before he goes under again. Danger. A fight--Sendak with Pidge in his grasp--he lifts his bayard and shoots at him and hopes he hits.

Keith, taking his hand, and pulling him up.

"I knew you'd come," Lance mumbles, and Keith smiles.

And then he's cold and shivering and stumbling out of a healing pod into Hunk's arms, and everyone is staring at him, except for Keith, who's nowhere to be seen.

"Uh," Lance says. "Hi. What happened?"

"You got blown up, Sendak tried to take over the castle while Coran and I went to get a new crystal, but we won and now you're okay again," Hunk says. "And then, uh. Wait, who's gonna tell him?"

"Keith _was_ until Allura scared him off," Pidge mutters.

"We already were nearly taken down from the inside--"

"But we don't even know for sure--right, Coran, you said we'd have to check--"

"Wait, wait, back up." Lance flails his way into the middle of the group. " _What_ happened? Taken down from the inside? _Keith?_ "


	3. Chapter 3

Lance is the first to find out--or, rather, it's him that everyone knows about first. He's the last to find out, technically, because he's the one in the healing pod when it happens.

He'd pushed Coran out of the way of an explosion, or something. Keith had been stuck outside for most of the attack, too long--Shiro had protected Lance as much as he could but they'd still almost lost him, almost lost everything.

Keith had gone straight to him, once they'd won, and Lance had taken his hand and smiled and said, "I knew you'd come." And he'd passed out again.

And then, once they'd gotten a new crystal and gotten Lance into the healing pod, Coran had glanced over at the readings and did a double-take, and waved Allura over. And they'd muttered together and Keith had felt his heart ice over.

"Is he gonna be okay?" he'd called, and they'd startled. And turned.

"He'll be just fine!" Coran responded.

"Keith," Allura added. "You two are brothers, yes? What can you tell us about your parents?

And he knew, just from that. Maybe because he'd started to suspect it of himself.

Lance is part alien.

So he goes up to the pod, looks at the readings like it'll mean anything to him. Turns to Allura and Coran.

"What is he?" he asks, heart in his throat.

They look at each other before they answer.

"Altean," Allura says, eventually, gently. "Half Altean."

"Not just that--and I could be wrong," Coran adds, "but he may be related to Allura."

Allura turns to look at the pod again, rests her fingertips against its surface. The expression on her face is indescribable.

"Then... so are you, Keith," she says, turning to look at him again. Her eyes are so bright.

"No," he says. "We aren't--we aren't related. By blood. Lance and I, our parents--my father and his mother met after we were born."

Allura's face falls. She can't help it, he tells himself. There are so few of them that just one is a major loss.

"What do you know?" she asks softly.

"Nothing," Keith says, though the word weighs heavy on his tongue. "They never talked about our other parents. I think they were both--something. Not human. But not the same." He closes his eyes and leans his forehead against the pod. "I know more about mine--she left things behind that my dad never got rid of. My knife." He takes it out without looking--cool fingers brush over his, holding it steady to be looked at. "I think she left and never came back. Dad was always afraid of that when Lance and I went flying." He shakes his head. "But Lance's father? I don't know anything. I don't know how it's possible. It's not like Mom could be ten thousand years old, and there's no way she... found him, or something. He's definitely, you know, hers." He opens his eyes to see Lance's face, still and calm like he's sleeping behind the cover of the pod. "If he's related to you... the only clue I can think of is Dad's nickname for him in his phone. It was 'Little Prince.' But that could be a coincidence."

He feels sort of emptied out after all that--all these things he'd been carrying inside for so long, out in the open. He's dimly aware the rest of the team is still in the room, somewhere behind him, and he wishes Lance were awake to know that they know. To know who he is. 

He turns, eventually, and Allura's hands drop away from his knife. He tucks it away and she doesn't meet his eyes.

"Your knife is Galran," she says lowly.

It figures. It really does, that Keith's brother, shining star that he is, would be maybe Altean royalty, and Keith himself comes from the people that killed them all.

He doesn't believe Dad would have loved someone who wasn't good, but maybe he just didn't know.

"Oh," he says, finally.

"Now, we don't know for sure," Coran begins, but Allura turns away. She glances back, once, toward Lance only, and then leaves.

"We don't know for sure," Coran repeats. He busies himself with puttering around the healing pod. When Keith look back to the others, Hunk and Pidge turn towards each other, talking quietly. Only Shiro approaches.

"Well," he says after a moment. "I always told you you had a place among the stars. I guess I was right."

"That isn't funny," Keith says, but his lips curve against his will anyway.

* * *

The room is mostly empty when Lance stumbles blearily out of the pod. He clings to Keith as he tries to get his legs back under him.

"What'd I miss?" he mumbles.

"You should be the one to tell him," Coran says nearby, and Keith nods. Lance straightens.

"What?" he asks, the alarm waking him up fast. "Is something wrong? Did I lose something? _Grow_ something?"

"No," Keith says, "you're fine. There's nothing wrong."

Keith would never lie to him. Lance relaxes a little and turns to his brother. "So? What is it?"

"Your father," Keith says.

"Dad?"

"No. Your other father."

The real one, then. The one he never met. Still doesn't explain anything; Lance raises an eyebrow. "What about him?"

"He was Altean, apparently." Keith's looking at him hard, and Lance almost misses the meaning, distracted by his expression. Something distant, hurt.

"Wait, what?" Lance recoils. "Altean? Like Allura?"

"Yeah. The healing pod said so, I guess." Keith glances over at Coran, who nods. And then he smirks, a little. "Don't get excited, though, you might be related to her."

The realization dawns like waves on the shore. Altean. He's half Altean. He's related to Allura. He _flirted_ with Allura.

"Oh _no_ ," he moans, leaning forward to hide his face in Keith's shoulder. "I almost pulled a _Star Wars_."

"Better you know now, I guess." Keith pokes him in the side.

"Ow. Oh man, that makes me Luke, though. That's cool. Then you can be Han, I guess? Han is cool. Hotshot pilot, like you. Except we're _actually_ space twins. Maybe this reference isn't gonna work."

"Yeah, I think Allura and I both would have to be Leia."

"Yeah, I'm gonna stop you there." Lance straightens again. "You know, I should probably be more surprised about this."

"We've spent the past few days piloting alien robots shaped like Earth lions, that combine to form one giant robot. It makes as much sense as anything." And there's the look again, that subtle hurt.

"Keith." Lance has to fix this somehow. He claps his hands on Keith's shoulders. "What about your mother? Maybe she was Altean too."

Bingo. Keith's eyes widen before he looks away.

"Well, we don't know for sure!" Coran chirps.

"Stop _saying_ that," Keith mutters.

"But he _may_ be part Galra."

"Oh." _Oh._ Lance reaches forward and wraps Keith in a tight hug.

"Lance?!"

"It doesn't matter," Lance says, as clear as he can, because this is suddenly so important. "It doesn't matter. You're still my brother. No matter what."

Keith's hands creep across his back. "I think it matters to Allura," he says, low and sullen.

"Yeah, well, whose opinion matters more to you? Mine or Allura's, huh?" Lance squeezes harder. "I don't care what I am or what you are. We're us."

"Okay," Keith says, and hugs him back like he means it. "Okay."

**Author's Note:**

> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ k bye


End file.
